The Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity has summoned Halliburton, Shell and other oil giants along with notable construction companies over alleged abuse of expatriate regulations and other labour laws.

By Omololu Ogunmade, 31 July 2013

The Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity has summoned Halliburton, Shell and other oil giants along with notable construction companies over alleged abuse of expatriate regulations and other labour laws.

According to the committee, which said it discovered the perceived abuse at the weekend, the erring companies are to appear before the committee to explain why they have failed to comply with labour laws.

The committee, which threatened that any company found culpable of the alleged abuse would be punished, added that over 60 per cent of major construction companies and oil giants in the country have refused to comply with labour laws. read more

At Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s (RDSA) compound in the Nigerian city of Warri, the gate is locked, the grounds are empty and grass has overgrown since Europe’s biggest oil company closed its operations in March after more than 40 years.

At Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s (RDSA) compound in the Nigerian city of Warri, the gate is locked, the grounds are empty and grass has overgrown since Europe’s biggest oil company closed its operations in March after more than 40 years.

After Warri saw some of the nation’s worst unrest in two decades, Shell has sold land-based fields that pumped about 400,000 barrels a day in the 1990s, valued at $1.2 billion a month at today’s crude prices, and is buying fields offshore. read more

Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited (SNUD) is in the centre of the Malabu Oil deal, for which it is being investigated by the British police. The Nation has obtained documents filed at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes

Posted by: Yusuf Alli

The controversy over the $1.092, 040,000 Malabu Oil deal continues with one of the parties, Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited (SNUD) opening up on how it acquired 40 per percent equity in Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 245 in 2000.

The company insisted that it followed due process and consulted with relevant officials in the administration of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.

It also claimed that it received verbal assurances from the then Vice-President Atiku Abubakar that there was no objection from the Federal Government to Shell acquiring an interest in OPL 245. read more

LOS ANGELES—The city of Carson declared a local emergency in a bid to spark faster cleanup of oil-tainted soil beneath hundreds of homes that residents say is a health danger. The council resolution said explosive methane and carcinogenic benzene are present under 285 homes that were built in the 1960s atop a former Shell tank farm. Waste petroleum was discovered beneath the housing tract five years ago. Residents and the city have filed several lawsuits against Shell, alleging the contamination has caused cancer and other illnesses as well as hurt property values.

LOS ANGELES—The city of Carson declared a local emergency in a bid to spark faster cleanup of oil-tainted soil beneath hundreds of homes that residents say is a health danger. ).

The council resolution said explosive methane and carcinogenic benzene are present under 285 homes that were built in the 1960s atop a former Shell tank farm. Waste petroleum was discovered beneath the housing tract five years ago.

Residents and the city have filed several lawsuits against Shell, alleging the contamination has caused cancer and other illnesses as well as hurt property values. read more

Following the 2010 settlements, a former employee sued Shell for defamation, claiming that Shell’s written report falsely stated that he recommended reimbursement to contractors for payments that he knew were bribes. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Shell, finding that Shell had an absolute privilege (i.e., immunity) for the statements it made to DOJ. The Texas court of appeals reversed that finding on June 24, 2013, holding that Shell’s written report was covered by only a conditional privilege. Consequently, Shell is not immune from suit if the former employee can show that Shell’s actions were motivated by malice.

Article by J. Patrick Rowan

Disclosing the results of a company’s internal investigation to government investigators is always fraught with potential problems. The most obvious is the danger of waiving attorney-client privilege and work product protections that would otherwise shield the internal investigation from discovery in parallel litigation. But another less-heralded danger is the risk of defamation claims by employees identified through the investigation as having participated in illegal activity. The risk associated with such claims was on display in a recent ruling by a Texas court of appeals, which held that Shell Oil Company was entitled to only a conditional privilege, and not “immunity,” for statements it made in a written report to the Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding alleged violations of the FCPA. read more

THE Gulf of Mexico oil spill will continue to cast its shadow over BP’s second-quarter results this week, leaving the door open for Shell to win the latest head-to-head tussle ­between the two rivals.

by PETER RANSCOMBE

THE Gulf of Mexico oil spill will continue to cast its shadow over BP’s second-quarter results this week, leaving the door open for Shell to win the latest head-to-head tussle ­between the two rivals.

BP is likely to set aside more cash to help pay for the damage caused in 2010, when an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on the Macondo well killed 11 workers and caused the United States’ worst oil spill.

Last week’s pictures of the fire on Walter Oil & Gas’s Hercules rig in the Gulf of Mexico will have brought back memories of the disaster for Louisiana residents. read more

MPs point to problems Shell has encountered in the Arctic in the past year and reiterate calls for a ‘sanctuary’ in the area.

Saturday 27 July 2013

The Government has been accused of “complacently standing by” while oil and gas drilling starts in the Arctic despite the risks to the environment.

Companies such as Shell are not yet able to demonstrate they could clean up an oil spill in the harsh but pristine conditions of the Arctic, MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) said.

And a recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that only a third of proved reserves of fossil fuels can be burnt before 2050 if global temperatures are to be kept from rising by more than 2C, widely regarded as the threshold for “dangerous” climate change. read more

July 27th 11:57 am | Carey Restino

Shell, which largely pulled out of the Arctic following a calamitous 2012 drilling season, is continuing its efforts with a geophysical survey of the ocean floor off the coast off Wainwright.

In a story first covered by KTUU TV, Shell’s plans to conduct sonar work in the Chukchi Sea this year. The company plans to examine the sea floor for ice gouges in several locations, documents submitted to the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Management explain. The surveys are continuations of similar programs conducted by Shell in the Beaufort Sea beginning in 2006 and in the Chukchi Sea in 2008, Shell writes in its activity notice to the agency. read more

My father, Alfred Donovan, passed away earlier today in Colchester Essex, after a short illness.  “Don”, as he was known to friends and family, served in the UK Regular Army – Royal Corp of Signals (Royal Berkshire Regiment) – for 12 years. From December 1933 until March 1946 he served in the UK, Palestine, Egypt and India, and he fought in the Burma campaign in World War 2. He was a successful businessman operating a chain of garages in East London for many years, before co-founding the sales promotion agency Don Marketing, which had many blue chip clients, including Guinness, Whitbread, BP, Conoco and Royal Dutch Shell. Nearly 10 years ago he was the co-founder of this website. He was everything that anyone would wish their father to be. read more

Homes sitting atop a former Shell Oil tank farm are left contaminated with oil chemicals: City officials have partnered with 285 homeowners in the city of Carson, CA to expedite a cleanup of an oil contamination, which has led to lawsuits involving cancer, skin rashes and tumors in the Carousel housing tract, which sits on top of a former Shell Oil tank farm. The oil contamination has been a problem in Carousel since 2008 when tests revealed that the soil beneath these homes contained high levels of benzene and petroleum. In addition to the extraordinarily high benzene levels, the soil has also tested positive for dangerously high levels of methane, leading some environmental experts to fear a massive fireball at Carousel should the gasses ever make it to the surface.

Written by Shannen Hill Sentinel Intern [email protected]: Published on Friday, 26 July 2013

Homes sitting atop a former Shell Oil tank farm are left contaminated with oil chemicals

City officials have partnered with 285 homeowners in the city of Carson, CA to expedite a cleanup of an oil contamination, which has led to lawsuits involving cancer, skin rashes and tumors in the Carousel housing tract, which sits on top of a former Shell Oil tank farm.

The oil contamination has been a problem in Carousel since 2008 when tests revealed that the soil beneath these homes contained high levels of benzene and petroleum. In addition to the extraordinarily high benzene levels, the soil has also tested positive for dangerously high levels of methane, leading some environmental experts to fear a massive fireball at Carousel should the gasses ever make it to the surface. read more

Port Harcourt : Nigeria | Jul 25, 2013 at 4:38 PM PDT

By AkanimoReports

PROCEEDINGS at an environmental training workshop and capacity building for civil society groups on offshore oil exploration and exploitation in Nigeria and , Its Impact on lives and livelihoods, was characterized with some hot exchanges between pro and anti-establishment groups in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital in Southern Nigeria, on Thursday.

Leading the controversial debate on Growing Offshore Oil Exploration and Production, Livelihoods, Environment and Civil Society in Nigeria, Dr. Fidelis Allen of Department of Political and Administrative Studies at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) at the event that was organized by Environmental Rights Action (ERA) said offshore oil exploration was not attractive in Nigeria before 1999 but has been growing after that time. read more

The first lawsuit against Shell outside Nigeria took 13 years to be heard in court. It was filed in 1996 by the family of Ken Saro-Wiwa, an author and activist, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, under the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 law that gives non-U.S. citizens the right to file lawsuits in U.S. courts for violations of international law committed outside the U.S. Although Shell settled out of court in 2009 and agreed to pay the Saro-Wiwa family $15.5 million, it denied the charges that included complicity in human rights abuses and inhumane treatment of the Ogoni people.

By Yemisi Akinbobola, 22 July 2013

In a stunning and dramatic legal ruling that echoed from the serene court chambers in the Netherlands to the heart of rural Niger Delta in Nigeria, the District Court of The Hague dismissed all but one of the lawsuits brought against Royal Dutch Shell, an Anglo-Dutch oil and gas company, by a group of farmers seeking compensation for the environmental damage caused by the company.

The lawsuit was filed in 2008 by four fishermen and farmers accusing Shell of ruining their livelihoods through environmental degradation. The claims centred on oil spills that occurred between 2004 and 2007 at the Ibibio-I oil well in the village of Ikot Ada Udo in Akwa Ibom State. read more

Oil Patch Insider: Shell hires for Arctic Offshore

Although media attention on Shell’s problems with its Alaska Arctic exploration program and the deferral of similar programs by ConocoPhillips and Statoil has tended to question the oil companies’ continuing commitment to the Arctic offshore, a recent half-page advertisement by Shell in the Anchorage Daily News would seem to imply that the company’s Alaska program is still alive and well. The advertisement, seeking job applications from “engineering and technical professionals,” says that Shell is seeking to fill immediate vacancies based in Anchorage. Those vacancies include positions such as a marine contracts manager, an ice management lead, well engineers and well supervisors, the advertisement says. read more

“It’s another bad day for Halliburton and a very good day for BP,” said Fadel Gheit, a senior oil analyst at Oppenheimer. Halliburton has agreed to plead guilty to destruction of critical evidence after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, the Justice Department announced on Thursday.

Halliburton Pleads Guilty to Destroying Evidence After Gulf Spill

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS: A version of this article appeared in print on July 26, 2013, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Halliburton Will Admit Destroying Data on Spill.

HOUSTON — Halliburton has agreed to plead guilty to destruction of critical evidence after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, the Justice Department announced on Thursday.

The oil services company said it would pay the maximum allowable fine of $200,000 and will be subject to three years of probation. It will also continue its cooperation in the government’s criminal investigation. Separately, Halliburton made a voluntary contribution of $55 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. read more

Wed Jul 24, 2013 6:36pm EDT

(Reuters) – A Louisiana agency sued 97 oil companies – including BP Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp , Chevron Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc – in state court on Wednesday for allegedly damaging hundreds of miles of sensitive wetlands by cutting through them with pipelines and transportation canals.

Governor Bobby Jindal quickly accused the agency of overreach and said the filing should be withdrawn.

The suit demands the oil industry pay for or remediate environmental damages stemming from decades of work that allegedly caused erosion and hurt coastal wetlands – which experts say serve as critical buffers during floods and higher ocean swells from hurricanes, like the 2005 Katrina disaster. read more

Gerry Bourke has opposed the imposition of the Corrib Gas project in his village over the past decade and has previously spoken out regarding the occupation of the area by Shell and IRMS security. Shell to Sea spokesperson Maura Harrington stated “Gerry Bourke was part of the Shell to Sea delegation which met the UN Human Rights Defenders Special Rapporteur Mrs Sekaggya last year; Mrs Sekaggya’s report delivered to the UN earlier this year was critical of the Shell/Corrib policing methods and made specific recommendations thereto. Alan Shatter and the party of ‘law and order’ chose to ignore these recommendations and so Shell and the police continue to operate here as they do in Nigeria.”

News release – Issued by Shell to Sea
Thursday 25th July 2013

AUGHOOSE FARMER ARRESTED FOR OPPOSING SHELL

Early yesterday morning, Mayo farmer Gerry Bourke was arrested by Gardaí  at his home in Aughoose, Co. Mayo.  He was held for 6 hours at Belmullet Garda station before being charged with criminal damage and trespass at Shell’s tunneling compound at Aughoose.

Mr Bourke was questioned by Garda Hugh Egan, who was previously recorded joking about raping female anti-Shell campaigners in 2011.  Garda Egan was briefly moved to Castlebar in the immediate aftermath of the recording being made public, however he remains actively involved in policing Corrib protests. [1] read more

In what appears to be an opening of an old wound, British Police yesterday said it was investigating a money laundering allegation of $1.3 billion in relation to an oil field bought by Shell and ENI from Nigeria. When contacted on the latest UK probe of OPL 245, a Shell spokesman, Precious Okolobo, in a text message to Daily Sun said “No comment.”

By ADEWALE SANYAOLU with Agency reports

In what appears to be an opening of an old wound, British Police yesterday said it was investigating a money laundering allegation of $1.3 billion in relation to an oil field bought by Shell and ENI from Nigeria.

Shell and Eni jointly bought Oil Prospecting License 245 from Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd., controlled by Dan Etete, a former oil minister, in 2011. Located in the deep offshore waters of the Gulf of Guinea, it is estimated to hold at least 9.2 billion barrels of crude reserves worth $1 trillion. read more

Transparency campaigners, who asked the UK to look into the matter, assert that Shell and ENI used the Nigerian government as a go-between to obscure the fact that they were dealing with former oil minister Dan Etete, who also has a 2007 money-laundering conviction in France related to bribes he was alleged to have taken when in government.

Tim Cocks – 24 July 2013

British police are investigating a money-laundering allegation related to a big oil field bought by Shell and ENI from Nigeria for $1.3bn (€982m), after most of the cash they paid ended up in a company linked to a former Nigerian oil minister.

The probe concerns offshore block OPL 245, which industry sources say contains up to 9.23 billion barrels of crude – more than enough to keep China running for two and a half years – the ownership of which had been in dispute for more than a decade.

“The proceeds of crime unit is investigating a money-laundering allegation in the UK in connection with OPL 245. The investigation is at an early stage,” a UK spokesman said.

Transparency campaigners, who asked the UK to look into the matter, assert that Shell and ENI used the Nigerian government as a go-between to obscure the fact that they were dealing with former oil minister Dan Etete, who also has a 2007 money-laundering conviction in France related to bribes he was alleged to have taken when in government. read more

A Dutch offshore services company will provide a floating production platform for Royal Dutch Shell’s Stones field project in the Gulf of Mexico, which the companies say will be the deepest-water field served by such a vessel.

Shell will lease the Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel from  SBM Offshore for development of its Stones field, which is in 9,500 of water and approximately 200 miles offshore.

The companies did not disclose the value of the contract in their announcement Tuesday. read more

By Sarah Young

LONDON | Tue Jul 23, 2013 10:21am BST

(Reuters) – Hopes French Guiana has commercial oil reserves like those of Ghana across the Atlantic suffered a new blow on Tuesday as a well off the Latin American country’s coast came in dry for explorers Tullow Oil (TLW.L) and Royal Dutch/Shell (RDSa.L).

Tullow’s production in Ghana has helped finance exploration across Africa and tempted it off the coasts of French Guiana, Suriname and Guyana – to which west Africa was connected millions of years ago, and which has similar geology. read more

The survey indicates Shell’s continued interest in Arctic drilling, despite its decision in February to shelve its 2013 plans for exploratory drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. That move followed difficulties such as the New Year’s Eve grounding of the conical drilling unit Kulluk, as well as safety and pollution violations aboard the drillship Noble Discoverer — issues which caused both ships to be taken to Asia for repairs.

By Chris Klint Channel 2 News: 2:36 p.m. AKDT, July 22, 2013: ANCHORAGE, Alaska—

Shell Oil plans to conduct sonar work in the Chukchi Sea this year, inspecting seafloor sites where it might build pipelines to offshore oil wells if its exploration plans for the Arctic ultimately bear fruit.

The geophysical survey work, considered ancillary to Shell’s Arctic exploration plan, involves visiting federally controlled regions of Alaska’s Outer Continental Shelf to assess the presence of “ice gouges” in the seafloor caused by passing icebergs or shallow hazards to navigation. It involves a single vessel towing a magnetometer and a sonar array, which measures sound returns from an airgun to map the seabed. About 620 miles of ice gouge surveys will be conducted, along with nearly 2,000 miles of shallow hazards surveys. read more

LONDON–U.K. authorities are investigating allegations of money laundering linked to a Nigerian oil block currently owned by subsidiaries of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Eni SpA, a spokeswoman for London’s Metropolitan Police said Thursday.

FULL ARTICLE

Royal Dutch Shell shares have been volatile since it admitted it had problems replacing its oil reserves last year.

Petrol prices roar away, but oil stocks are stuck in the slow lane. Emma Wall looks at the investment case.

By Emma Wall: 21 Jul 2013

Feeling the effects of inflation at the pump? That’s because the oil price has risen steeply. Since early June, Brent crude has risen from a little more than $100 to reach $108.60 a barrel. Overall inflation rose to 2.9pc last week from 2.7pc the previous month – largely because the increase in the price of oil.

But despite the climbing price of oil, the value of oil stocks – and funds that invest in them – has so far failed to enjoy similar gains. But that could change. read more

No one disputes that cancer-causing benzene, explosive methane and other hazardous compounds are present in the abandoned oil waste. But while Shell’s testers argue the chemicals don’t pose major health risks, residents and the investigators representing them say that people and pets have become sick and died from a spectrum of illnesses as a result of living in the community.

By Sandy Mazza, Staff Writer: Posted: 07/19/2013

Carson is on the verge of declaring a local emergency to spur more rapid cleanup of its environmentally contaminated Carousel housing tract, which sits on a former oil tank farm that left untold amounts of petroleum just a few feet below the neighborhood’s 285 homes.

The city filed a claim for damages this week in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging that Shell Oil Co. is trespassing and creating a public nuisance that is causing injury. On Thursday night, council members told staff to prepare an emergency resolution seeking immediate remediation of the problem. read more

Nigeria should revoke oil rights for which Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Eni SpA paid $1.1 billion, a parliamentary committee said, alleging that the acquisition process was “highly flawed.” Shell and Eni jointly bought Oil Prospecting License 245 from Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd., controlled by Dan Etete, a former oil minister, in 2011. Located in the deep offshore waters of the Gulf of Guinea, it is estimated to hold at least 9 billion barrels of crude reserves worth $1 trillion…

By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo: July 19, 2013

Nigeria should revoke oil rights for which Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and Eni SpA (ENI) paid $1.1 billion, a parliamentary committee said, alleging that the acquisition process was “highly flawed.”

Shell and Eni jointly bought Oil Prospecting License 245 from Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd., controlled by Dan Etete, a former oil minister, in 2011. Located in the deep offshore waters of the Gulf of Guinea, it is estimated to hold at least 9 billion barrels of crude reserves worth $1 trillion, according to a probe report by a House of Representatives committee filed as a public record and provided to Bloomberg yesterday. read more

Published: July 18, 2013 at 8:12 AM

HOUSTON, July 18 (UPI) — The Gulf of Mexico is expected to be a source of substantial oil production during the next several years, a Shell Oil executive said.

Shell announced Wednesday it was closing down its Cardamom development in the Gulf of Mexico in order to retrofit a drilling platform for future development. Shell set drilling records for depth and production with its Auger platform and it’s expected to reach a peak production rate of 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent by next year. read more

Multinational oil firms including Shell, Agip and Chevron have complained of increasing rate of oil theft and sabotage of their facilities. Nigeria is estimated to lose about $6 billion annually to oil theft. The theft occurs despite the amnesty granted militants which has seen the federal government spend billions of Naira with some of the militants also securing multi-billion Naira security contracts from both the companies and the government.

By Talatu Usman, 17 July 2013

A vessel mv sea express laden with some 2,500 tones of crude impounded by joint task force in the niger delta, operation pulo shield at okuboto creek in bayelsa state.

Nigeria loses billions of dollars annually to crude oil theft.

The presidency has accused multinational oil companies of complicity in the increased rate of crude oil theft in the Niger Delta.

The Special Assistant to the President on Amnesty, Kingsley Kuku, has said the companies are aware that their Nigerian employees engage in oil theft in the Niger Delta region and do nothing about it. read more

Hello John

Just read this stuff below. I forgot how many years this first production is overdue but it could well be 10 years or so! Once they get it going, the production will increase a lot, there genuinely is a lot of oil there!

Shell is one of the joint venture partners.

By Sarah Kent

LONDON–The giant Kashagan oil field in Kazakhstan has moved one step closer toward first production with the introduction of gas into its offshore facility, the field’s operator said in a statement Wednesday. read more

From a Washington Observer: 

Royal Dutch Shell is in up to its ears in corruption scandals these days, and it appears an old one may make a comeback.
 
Within about 60 days or so rumor has it that the fellow whose classified Intellectual Property RDS targeted in the recent past will be filing a lawsuit in Federal Court in Washington, D.C. The target of that suit will apparently be DoD, DoN, and DoE. Because classified information is involved it is a good guess that this suit will be a ‘sealed’ filing. At that point in time my sources tell me that ‘all hell will break lose’. As it happens to be, when certain breaches of security occur the law requires formal notification of both the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, as well as the White House. At this stage of the game however, this should just be a formality. It is also a dead certainty that the nature of this suit against these agencies will ensure that Shell’s shenanigans pertaining to industrial espionage over the years will become a matter of serious interest and discussion.
 
This story could take on a who new life of its own. read more

By John Donovan

We have already published several articles about Shell’s corruption of the Irish Police Force, the Garda.

Shell has spent almost €100,000 at legitimate retail value on supplying free alcohol (brought across the border) to quell the thirst of hundreds of Garda officers involved in supposedly policing the controversial Corrib Gas Project on an impartial basis. Complaints have been made over the  past several years by environmental campaigners and members of the local population all alleging that the police are working for Shell. read more

Greenpeace have plastered: ‘Simon Bridges Pants on Fire’ on a central Wellington billboard, measuring almost 300 square metres and seen by thousands of people every day, and challenged the National MP to clear his name by releasing full details of a meeting he had with oil company Shell. Bridges had denied, in Parliament, having contact with oil companies about a controversial Crown Minerals Bill amendment, which concerns protests at sea. But when it emerged that he had met Shell just weeks before announcing the amendment, the Labour Party said it ‘appears that Mr Bridges misled Parliament’.

News from Greenpeace: July 16, 2013

Energy minister Simon Bridges’ failure to clear his name in response to allegations he has misled Parliament has been highlighted in one of the capital city’s most prominent sites this week.

Greenpeace have plastered: ‘Simon Bridges Pants on Fire’ on a central Wellington billboard, measuring almost 300 square metres and seen by thousands of people every day, and challenged the National MP to clear his name by releasing full details of a meeting he had with oil company Shell. read more

The latest incident underscores how, despite a government crackdown, oil theft remains a persistent problem in Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, and continues to disrupt its crude supply.

07.15.2013  |

By OBAFEMI OREDEIN

IBADAN — Shell’s Nigerian unit has shut a trunk line of the Trans Niger Pipeline following a leak, barely a week after reopening it, the company said.

The latest incident underscores how, despite a government crackdown, oil theft remains a persistent problem in Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, and continues to disrupt its crude supply. read more

The House of Representatives Committee on Environment has summoned the management of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) and the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) over an oil spill that occurred at Shell’s Bonga Field in December 2011.

By Onwuka Nzeshi, 15 July 2013

The House of Representatives Committee on Environment has summoned the management of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) and the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) over an oil spill that occurred at Shell’s Bonga Field in December 2011.

Also summoned are the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) as well as representatives of about 88 fishing communities located in Warri South-west and Warri North Local Government Areas of Delta State. read more

By Adesuwa Tsan, 15 July 2013

Ten months after its inauguration, the House of Representatives committee which investigated the transaction involving the Federal Government and Shell/Agip Companies and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited in respect of the Sale of Oil Bloc OPL 245 investigating has fingered the attorney- general of the federation (AGF), Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, SNEPCO and Nigerian Agip Exploration of complicity in the settlement agreement on OPL 245. read more

July 15, 2013: The U.K. antitrust regulator said it was reviewing whether there is enough evidence to start a criminal probe into manipulation of oil benchmarks while European Union officials conduct a civil investigation.

The U.K. Office of Fair Trading said it was working with prosecutors and regulators to determine which agency should take a lead role. The EU in May raided Platts, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), BP Plc (BP/), and Statoil ASA (STL) as part of a civil investigation into the possible rigging of benchmark energy assessments. read more

The warning signs which read “Danger Sinkholes: Keep Back” were erected in order to warn users of the estuary of presence of the sinkhole, which have been up to 8 foot deep.  Residents were forced to put up the warning signs after both Mayo County Council and the Department of Energy & Natural Resources, despite being contacted, have failed to take any action.

News release – Issued by Shell to Sea
Monday 15th July 2013

RESIDENTS RAISE SINKHOLE WARNING SIGNS OVER SHELL TUNNEL
— Local community forced to act after State agencies ignore danger —

Yesterday, local residents and supporters raised signs on Sruwaddacon estuary, warning of the sinkholes that continue to appear over Shell’s tunnel.  Residents first noticed the sinkholes beginning to appear in the special area of conservation on the 20th May and numerous sinkholes have appeared along the tunnel route since then. read more

FROM A REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR: John Etete and Shell mentioned in this talk about bribery and corruption. Worth viewing!